Sink dish protector



April 1953 A. M. GERUE ETAL 2,635,252

SINK DISH PROTECTOR Filed Dec. 8, 1949 /a 6 A3 A2 N If! 4' 1.2.2222 Q'er' zze 1-9 K.L.l20e72ard INVENTORS I I BY I 1 u 1 ATTORNEYS.

Patented Apr. 21, 1953 SINK DISH Pao'rEoTo Agnes M. Gerue, Escanaba, and Vene T. Lockard,

Gladstone,-Mich'. 1

Application December a, 1949, Serial no. 131,831

1 Claim.

This invention relates to a protective device in,the form of asink liner, intended to prevent the; breakage of dishes while they are being washed.

An important object of the present invention is to provide an article of the type stated which 'will eliminate completely the contact between dishes and'the hard bottom or walls of a sink.

Another important object is to provide a liner of the type described which will prevent silverware and dishes from scratching the surface of a sink bottom or wall.

Still another object is to provide a liner of the character described which can be manufactured very inexpensively, by reason of the fact that it can be swiftly cut from a fiat piece of soft rubber material.

Still another object is to provide a liner as described which will fit sinks of differentsizes.

Yet another object is to provide a liner which, when not in use, can be hung fiat against a closet wall so as to take up practically no space.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists of certain novel details of construction and combinations of parts, hereinafter more fully described and pointed out in the claim, it being understood that changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of parts without departing from the spirit of the invention as claimed.

Referring to the drawings Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a sink in which has been positioned a liner formed in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view through said sink and liner.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the liner as .it appears when not in use, the dotted linesindicating a position to which a drain closure provided on the liner can be swung.

Referring to the drawings in detail, a sink l is of entirely conventional construction, the liner of the invention being adapted for positioning in any conventional sink, as will be appreciated from the description to be provided hereinafter.

As is usual, the sink I is provided with the centrally located drain 2. and this drain will be provided with the usual sink drain closure, not shown, that is adjustable to closed or open positions for filling or draining 01 the sink bowl.

In accordance with the invention, a fiat piece of soft rubber material is cut to the shape genliner having a flexible and resilient bottom-and side wall, the bottom portion 3 of the sink liner covering the bottom of the sink bowlin the manner illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. At-the opposite sides of the bottom portion 3 there are formed on the liner or protector the side wings I, while end wings 5 are formed on the ends of said bottom portion. Openings 8 can be located wherever desired on the respective wings for hanging the protector against the wall of a cupboard or the like when the protector is not in use. It will be readily observed that when the protector is suspended against a wall in this manner, it lies flat against the wall so as to take up practically no space.

As desired, there may or may not be formed at the central part of the bottom portion 3 a drain opening in the sink liner. In the present instance, such an opening has been provided, but it can be dispensed with if desired. If the opening is provided, it can be readily fashioned as seen in Figs. 2 and 3, with a disc-like drain covering body 1 formed with a peripheral raised rib 8 and with a laterally extended tongue 9 pivotally connected at ID to the bottom portion 3. The drain member 1 can be adjusted to drain covering or opening positions as desired, and as best seen in Fig. 3, wherein the full lines indicate the closing position of the drain member, while the dotted lines indicate the opening position thereof. The drain member I can, in fact, merely comprise a movable access plate permitting access to the drain closure of the sink bowl itself, so that one can open or close said sink drain closure without the necessity of removing the liner from the sink.

As previously noted, the sink liner, when not in use, normally lies flat, with the wings 4 and 5 being disposed in the plane of the bottom portion 3. Or, when not in use, the liner can be rolled up. In any event, when the liner is positioned in a sink bowl as in Figs. 1 and 2, this causes the side wings I and end wings 5 to be raised to constitute side walls covering the walls of the sink bowl, so as to prevent dishes being washed from striking said sink walls. In this connection, when the walls 4 and 5 of the DI'O'! tector are raised, it is preferred that they be connected detachably, and to this end, we provide in the present instance tongues H at the top of the respective side walls 4, at the ends of said side walls, which tongues extend toward the adjacent ends of the end walls 5, said end walls 5 being provided with gripper portions l2 adapted to be erally shown in Fig. 3, so as to provide a sink engaged by cooperating gripper portions 13 provided on the tongues l I. This raises the walls of the protector so as to provide a box-like liner member for the sink bowl the walls of which are wholly flexible and resilient. In this connection, it may be noted that the protector liner is not intended to be water tight, since the sink bowl itself holds water. Therefore, we detachably connect the side wings 4 to the end wings 5 in a manner toileave slits l4'between said connected wings (see Fig.1), so that the water in the sink bowl can freely pass through said slits.

Additionally, spaces l5 may be left between the; l

,7 References Cited in the file of this patent raised wings and the walls of the sink bowl. and

water will fill said spaces l5. This provides, in efiect, a cushion disposed exteriorly of the'raised wings, as well as space into which the wings can flex when struck by an article being washed. What is claimed is:

A sink liner and stopper comprising a sheet of flexible cushioning material having a contour adapted to fit a sink bottom, said sheet having adrainopening extending therethrough in substantial alignment with the sink drain, a cover carried by the sheet adjacent the opening for sheet for holding the 4 movement in an arcuate path into and out of closing relation to the drain opening, wings car ried by the sheet for movement adjacent the periphery thereof from inactive position in which they lie in the plane of the sheet to active positions in which they lie at angles to the sheet and against the side walls of the sink, and separable fasteners carried by the wings remote from the wings in; active position.

.AGNES 5M. GERUE.

VENE 'I. LOCKARD.

" UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 455,429 McDonald July 7, 1891 726,205: MTuttle Apr. 21, 1903 876,425 Baccalow Jan. 14, 1908 2,001,423 Horner May 14, 1935 2,284,494 Oakley May 26, 1942 2,421,806 Robertson June 10,1947 2,426,025 Justin Aug. 19,194? 2,495,602 Rinaldi -Jan. 24, 1950 

